Comparison of CD-138 Expression in Different Grades of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective: To compare the expression of CD-138 (Syndecan-1) in different morphological grades of oralsquamous cell carcinoma.Study Design: Cross-sectional study.Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the Department of Histopathology, Rehman MedicalInstitute Peshawar, Pakistan from June 2022 to February 2023.Methods: A total of 110 biopsy specimens from patients of either gender suspected as cases of oral squamouscell carcinoma (OSCC) underwent histopathological examination in the laboratory of Rehman MedicalInstitute. After eosin and hematoxylin staining, the diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma and the gradewere confirmed. Thereafter, immunohistochemical analysis for CD-138 was performed. Age, gender, biopsysite intensity, and positivity for CD-138 expression in different grades of OSCC were the parameters recorded.Results: Mean age of the patients included in the study was 58.91 ± 6.42 years while the gender distributionshowed a male predominance with 98 (89.1%) males and 12 (10.9%) females. The most common affected sitein these patients was buccal mucosa of the oral cavity in 50 (45.5%) participants followed by 43 (39.1%)participants in which the affected site was tongue. The intensity of CD-138 (Syndecan-1) expression decreasedsignificantly with a change in the histological appearance of the tissue samples from well-differentiated topoorly differentiated morphology with a P-value of <0.01.Conclusion: Loss of CD-138 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma is associated with a higher histologicalgrade, tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis.